Prohibition+3

In the Roaring Twenties, the new laws prohibiting alcohol to be sold or imported caused the formation of speakeasies and gangs. These hidden bars illegally sold alcohol, also known as bootleg. Gangs fought to gain control of these speakeasies. The government tried to stop bootlegging, but it became such a big industry that the task became impossible. After thirteen years of alcohol being outlawed, Congress lifted Prohibition in 1933.

Vocab Terms: St. Valentine’s Day Massacre Speakeasy Bootlegging Al Capone G-men

The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre was the brutal murder of seven people. The massacre was believed to be the doing of the South Side Italian gang. The head of the gang was the infamous Al Capone, a ruthless man attempting to monopolize speakeasies with the use of violence. Al Capone told George “Bugs” Moran, the head of the north side mob, that a load of hijacked whisky was to be shipped to one of Moran’s garages. The call was made on the morning of February 13, 1929. Moran made an arrangement to meet with the truck the next day to receive the cargo. On Valentine’s Day, seven men went and waited in the garage to for the hijacked whisky. Moran was late for the rendezvous, so he was not one of those seven. The seven men didn’t realize that a police car had pulled up next to the garage. As Moran approached the garage in his car, he noticed the police car and decided to turn the corner instead and get a cup of coffee. Five men stepped out of the car. Two were in police clothing and the other three were in civilian clothing. These five men were members of the Al Capone gang. The “police” men lined up the seven members of the north side gang against the wall of the garage and sprayed them down with Thompson sub-machine guns. To ensure witnesses that everything was under control, the “police” men came out with their guns at the other three men’s backs. All seven were killed in the garage except for Frank Gusenberg, who died three hours later in the hospital.

[] http://www.prairieghosts.com/valentine.html “Saint Valentine's Day Massacre." //Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia.// Grolier Online, 2011. Web. 9 Mar. 2011. Taylor, Troy. "Blood, Roses & Valentines." //Dead Men Do Tell Tales//. N.p., 2008. Web. 10 Mar 2011. . Kallen, Stuart. //The Roaring Twenties//. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press, 2002. 114. Print

Speakeasies, popular in the Prohibition Era, were establishments that sold illegal liquor. The term “speakeasy” came about when bartenders would tell their patrons to “quiet down and speak easy,” as the bar didn’t want to get caught. Alcohol may have been illegal in the United States at the time, but that gave it a bigger attraction! Speakeasies were usually run by gangsters. These groups made tons of money by selling “bootleg gin,” another name for illegal liquor. “Bootleggers” like Al Capone controlled different territories and settled differences with street shootouts. Perhaps the most popular speakeasy in the 1920’s was the Cotton Club. An upscale New York bar, it originally allowed only white patrons. However, most of the workers and entertainers were black. The white view of African Americans was that they were “exotic savages or plantation residents.”





Works Cited:

Pendergast, Tom, and Sara Pendergast. //UXL American Decades; 1920-1929//. Farmington Hills, Michigan: The Gale Group, Inc., 2003. Print. [] - Prohibition

For more information on speakeasies, check out: []

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**Al Capone**- famous American gangster

Alphose “Al” Gabriel Capone was born on January 17, 1899 in Brooklyn New York to an Italian family. He went to school but was expelled when he beat up a teacher. He was 14 at the time. When he became a young adult he moved to Chicago and started a gang called the Capone gang. He gained the nickname scarface from where he was cut in a bar fight. He married a woman named Mae Coughlin and had a child named Albert Francis Capone. Al Capone started three illegal businesses via his gang, a bootlegging business, a smuggling business, and a prostitution business. He had an income of 20 million dollars a year through his illegal activities. Al Capone was practically untouchable by anyone, police and rivals alike. Every year he murdered 400 rivals and in total he spent a million dollars bribing off cops and officials. He had a total 700 people in his gang and owned over 11000 speakeasies. President Hoover commissioned for a squadron of men to find a way to arrest Capone. Capone was convicted of income tax fraud and was sentenced to 11 years in Alcatraz. He was let out on parole after 9 years. But in jail he contracted the disease syphilis. He died on January 25, 1947.

WORKS CITED

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Kallen, Stuart. //The Roaring Twenties //. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press, 2002.Print

=Bootleg=



Vocab Term- Bootlegging – the concealing of illegally acquired liquor

In 1920 a bill was passed making the United States dry. This period was called prohibition. Most people were upset by this so the broke the law to get liquor. This illegal liquor that was being sold and brought into the United States was called bootleg. Bootleg was sold to people in illegal bars known as speakeasies. Bootleg was the heart of all organized crime during prohibition. Police tried to stop this distribution of illegal alcohol but some were being paid off by gangs but even if those police were still looking the country is too big to survey every town and city. One of the largest bootleg industries operated in Chicago with Al Capone.

Bootleg was brought into the country using different methods. The most popular method was smuggling barrels of liquor from one boat into another in international waters. This happened so often the international waters where this occurred was nick-named Rum Row. Other ways of getting bootleg into the country was smuggling it in through Mexico and Canada. People could also make alcohol in their home by using ingredients sold in markets. There was a problem with this however, some ingredients that weren’t supposed to be in the liquor were mixed in. One example is oil, this caused blindness or even death if consumed. There were also loopholes in prohibition that allowed for people to drink. Before prohibition started some people bought a lot of alcohol because if you had the liquor before prohibition started it wasn’t illegal. Also doctors could still alcohol for medical reasons so people went to the doctors and asked for a prescription for alcohol. Bootleg was such a popular business that gangs would fight over their rights. Immigrants were big in the business of bootlegging but the true boss of bootleg was George Remus. In conclusion even though alcohol distribution was illegal people still found ways to break the law.

For more information go to - [] WorksCited Kallen, S. A. (2002). //The roaring twenties//. San Deigo: Greenhaven Press. Brown, D. M. (2011). Bootlegging. //Encyclopedia Americana.// Retrieved March 10, 2011, from Grolier Online [] []



J. EDGAR HOOVER AND THE FBI John Edgar Hoover was the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1935, at its founding, until his death in 1972. His long tenure was marked with many scandals and very biased investigations. During the Prohibition Era, Hoover and the FBI were regarded as national heroes. They caught many gangsters and bootleggers, and Hoover even apprehended a few of them himself. The government agents at his time were known as G-Men, short for Government Men. The arrest of John Dillinger was one of the FBI’s greatest achievements during Prohibition. This was one of the arrests that Hoover claimed to make himself, but in all actuality one of the agents made the arrest. Many other gangsters were arrested by Hoover and the FBI. J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI, and the G-Men all contributed to the slight decline of organized crime, but that continued even after Prohibition ended. For more information visit: []